The Cake Bake Shop Restaurant by Gwendolyn Rogers is a new sit-down dining spot and bakery at Walt Disney World, replacing ESPN Club at the BoardWalk within walking distance of EPCOT. This covers everything you need to know: opening date, full menus for breakfast, lunch & dinner with prices, how to eat here during the soft opening, as well as a bit of commentary about the controversies (plural) of this new WDW dining concept.
Let’s start with the Cake Bake Shop Restaurant’s opening date, as this has become a common reader questions for the last couple of years. Not since Space 220 and Toy Story Roundup Rodeo has a restaurant had as many construction delays as Cake Bake. (So really, not that long ago since those are still two of Walt Disney World’s newest restaurants.)
The lethargic pace of this project has actually become a bit of a punchline. Or at least, it was until this month. The Cake Bake Shop Restaurant has been doing limited testing and trial operations for invited guests, Cast Members and various VIPs over the course of the last week–and had its walls down before that as of the first week of October. So we knew its debut sometime this month was inevitable. It’s been 84 years, but that day has finally arrived…
The latest update is that the Cake Bake Shop is NOW (soft) OPEN as of October 24, 2024!
The bakery side of The Cake Bake Shop quietly opened its doors and greeted guests bright and early this morning. The table service restaurant will open for dinner service at 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 24.
Starting on Friday, October 25, the restaurant side of the Cake Bake Shop will open at 7 a.m. for breakfast, which will be served until 11 a.m. Immediately thereafter, lunch and dinner will be served from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. The bakery side will be open daily from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m.
During these soft openings, the Cake Bake Shop is only accepting walk-ups. Expect it to regularly reach capacity over this coming weekend as it works through long lines of bloggers, vloggers, influencers, and Floridian fans who have to be “first.” Given the high menu prices (more on that in a minute), it’ll be interesting to see what organic demand looks like among regular Walt Disney World guests once the artificial initial rush is over.
Reservations for Cake Bake’s grand opening and beyond will be available in the My Disney Experience app and via DisneyWorld.com at some point in the near future. (Within the next week is what we’ve been told, but no specifics beyond that.)
It’s worth noting that Walt Disney World still has yet to announce an official opening date for the Cake Bake Shop. It’s possible they want to give this a longer runway for making adjustments during trial operations, as the Cake Bake Shop has already proven receptive to guest feedback. It might behoove them to heed a bit more of that.
Here are the full and final menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Cake Bake Shop Restaurant by Gwendolyn Rogers:
The Cake Bake Shop has been mired in controversy since it was originally announced.
Many Walt Disney World fans were upset about ESPN Club closing, period. It offered a convenient spot within walking distance of both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios to watch major sporting events, making it the rare non-lounge venue serving such a purpose.
The Cake Bake Shop was basically the antithesis of ESPN Club. I don’t want to paint with too broad of a brush about guest demographics or anything, but the vibe of the Cake Bake Shop is basically Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for cakes. You are more than welcome to draw your own conclusions about to whom that appeals versus a sports bar.
In any case, this was exacerbated when Walt Disney World announced the “surprise” closure of Big River Grille & Brewing Works over on the other side of the BoardWalk earlier this year. Air quotes around surprise since it was anything but, as this restaurant had been unpopular (and awful) for a while nothing. Abrupt is probably the more apt term. The bigger surprise was that Big River didn’t close years ago.
Regardless, it’s fair to say that the closure of Big River added more credibility to concerns about the dining slate at BoardWalk. From an objective perspective, it was hard to take seriously complaints about ESPN Club’s closure. If it were as popular as some fans claimed, it would’ve stayed open. The difference with Big River gone is that BoardWalk now has a shortage of easy and approachable options, and I can see why that would upset frequent BoardWalk guests or DVC owners here.
Thankfully, Trattoria al Forno still exists–and is one of the best mid-tier table service restaurants at Walt Disney World. Not to mention the many other options around Crescent Lake in the Swan & Dolphin or Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. And those via the Skyliner at other nearby resorts. Oh, also the ones a short walk away inside EPCOT’s World Showcase.
Construction walls came down a few weeks ago, revealing menus posted outside at the Cake Bake Shop. With this, a newer and bigger controversy emerged–the astronomical prices drew a tremendous amount of backlash on social media. While outrage is the normal currency of the internet, these complaints were understandable.
Honestly, we expected prices to be high and warned fans to brace themselves for the Cake Bake Shop at Walt Disney World to be expensive given its other locations. It stood to reason that if those were expensive despite being located in Indiana, the one at Walt Disney World would be even worse. We recently saw something similar with the premium pricing at Din Tai Fung at Downtown Disney versus its location in affluent areas of Southern California.
Even expecting high prices, I was shocked by what I saw when the Cake Bake Shop menus were posted outside the restaurant. I’ve been doing this a while–it takes a lot to shock me at this point. But you know what? Kids menus with $18 PB&J sandwiches and $18 grilled cheese, $8 Cokes, $26 eggs, and $26 fruit plates will do it! (Unlike some, I was not shocked by the $32 burger. Ridiculous, yes, but Space 220 already has a ~$40 burger if you do the math on the lunch prix fixe menu!)
In any case, Ms. Rogers must’ve heard the chorus of complaints, because the Cake Bake Shop menus posted outside were quickly updated with adjusted costs. For the most part, prices were pretty much lowered across the board. (The menus above are the final ones, reflecting the mostly-lowered prices.)
Some went down by as little as a penny (kudos on the $0.99 consumer psychology, I guess?), whereas others dropped by over $10. Some items did increase by a couple of dollars to keep consistent with their categories (which saw other items decrease). Without doing any math, I’d guesstimate that the menu prices dropped by around 10-15% on average. It was a huge win for online complainers, and proof that our tireless efforts do make a difference.
Before we strain our shoulders patting ourselves on the backs, it is worth noting that–since the Cake Bake Shop was not yet open–it was unclear how these price reductions were achieved. Perhaps it was a hollow victory, after all. Maybe portion sizes were decreased, supplier substitutions were made, or lower-quality ingredients will now be used. Personally, I’m not too worked up about all of that. Something tells me that the $18 PB&J was all markup and the quality of the Coca-Cola (with free refills) is more or less unchanged.
I have a lot of thoughts about the Cake Bake Shop prices, some of which you may not like. (Don’t worry, I’m sure most of you will agree with most of it.) But, you know what, it’s been a long week of price increases and this is already a lot to digest, so I’m going to hit pause on that.
In part, this is because I also want to hear from readers to incorporate some of that reader feedback into an upcoming article. So now is your chance to impress your family, friends, former classmates, inlaws & outlaws, and so forth by having your thoughts published in what is easily among the top 1,570 Disney-related blogs on the internet. When preparing your smartest and most astute insights into the Cake Bake Shop Restaurant’s menu prices (and whatever else), please consider the following:
The Cake Bake Shop is owned and operated by a third party, meaning that Disney is not responsible for these prices except indirectly to the extent that they charge rent. (However, the existence of other third party restaurants–including in-park ones–that have cheaper menus sort of undercuts that line of reasoning.)
Cake prices are per slice (albeit massive ones), not for entire cakes.
Here are the menus for the Broad Ripple and Carmel Cake Bake locations, for reference.
The other locations are incredibly popular, despite being expensive and in Indiana.
Cake Bake Shop does not use gold flakes, endangered animals, or any other rare/exotic ingredients in these dishes or drinks.
I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts on this one, hopefully taking into consideration the above points. I think I have a pretty good idea of what to expect, but am nevertheless open to a variety of opinions, including ‘unpopular’ or contrarian ones.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts about the Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers? Will you be dining here or skipping it? Surprised by just how expensive this is? Think the prices are worth it, even if they do require a second mortgage? Excited for this new bakery and restaurant or will you miss ESPN Club? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
